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ST. ATHANASIUS
ENCYCLICAL EPISTLE TO THE BISHOPS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
[Oxford translation by Rev. M. Atkinson, revised by Rev. Archibald
Robertson, Principal of Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham, late fellow of
Trinity College, Oxford.]
CIRCULAR LETTER
To his fellow-ministers in every place, beloved lords, Athanasius sends
health in the Lord.
# 1. The whole Church affected by what has occurred.
Our sufferings have been dreadful beyond endurance, and it is
impossible to describe them in suitable terms; but in order that the
dreadful nature of the events which have taken place may be more readily
apprehended, I have thought it good to remind you of a history out of the
Scriptures. It happened that a certain Levite[1] was injured in the person
of his wife; and, when he considered the exceeding greatness of the
pollution (for the woman was a Hebrew, and of the tribe of Judah), being
astounded at the outrage which had been committed against him, he divided
his wife's body, as the Holy Scripture relates in the Book of Judges, and
sent a part of it to every tribe in Israel, in order that it might be
understood that an injury like this pertained not to himself only, but
extended to all alike; and that, if the people sympathised with him in his
sufferings, they might avenge him; or if they neglected to do so, might
bear the disgrace of being considered thenceforth as themselves guilty of
the wrong. The messengers whom he sent related what had happened; and they
that heard and saw it, declared that such things had never been done from
the day that the children of Israel came up out of Egypt. So every tribe of
Israel was moved, and all came together against the offenders, as though
they had themselves been the sufferers; and at last the perpetrators of
this iniquity were destroyed in war, and became a curse in the mouths of
all: for the assembled people considered not their kindred blood, but
regarded only the crime they had committed. You know the history, brethren,
and the particular account of the circumstances given in Scripture. I will
not therefore describe them more in detail, since I write to persons
acquainted with them, and as I am anxious to represent to your piety our
present circumstances, which are even worse than those to which I have
referred. For my object in reminding you of this history is this, that you
may compare those ancient transactions with what has happened to us now,
and perceiving how much these last exceed the other in cruelty, may be
filled with greater indignation on account of them, than were the people of
old against those offenders. For the treatment we have undergone surpasses
the bitterness of any persecution; and the calamity of the Levite was but
small, when compared with the enormities which have now been committed
against the Church; or rather such deeds as these were never before heard
of in the whole world, or the like experienced by any one. For in that case
it was but a single woman that was injured, and one Levite who suffered
wrong; Now the whole Church is injured, the priesthood insulted, and worst
of all, piety[2] is persecuted by impiety. On that occasion the tribes were
astounded, each at the sight of part of the body of one woman; but now the
members of the whole Church are seen divided from one another, and are sent
abroad some to you, and some to others, bringing word of the insults and
injustice which they have suffered. Be ye therefore also moved, I beseech
you, considering that these wrongs are done unto you no less than unto us;
and let every one lend his aid, as feeling that he is himself a sufferer,
lest shortly ecclesiastical Canons, and the faith of the Church be
corrupted. For both are in danger, unless God shall speedily by your hands
amend what has been done amiss, and the Church be avenged on her enemies.
For our Canons[3] and our forms were not given to the Churches at the
present day, but were wisely and safely transmitted to us from our
forefathers. Neither had our faith its beginning at this time, but it came
down to us from the Lord through His disciples[4]. That therefore the
ordinances which have been preserved in the Churches from old time until
now, may not be lost in our days, and the trust which has been committed to
us required at our hands; rouse yourselves, brethren, as being stewards of
the mysteries of God[5], and seeing them now seized upon by others. Further
particulars of our condition you will learn from the bearers of our
letters; but I was anxious myself to write you a brief account thereof,
that you may know for certain, that such things have never before been
committed against the Church, from the day that our Saviour when He was
taken up, gave command to His disciples, saying, 'Go ye and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost[6].
# 2. Violent and uncanonical intrusion of Gregory.
Now the outrages which have been committed against us and against the
Church are these. While we were holding our assemblies in peace, as usual,
and while the people were rejoicing in them, and advancing in godly
conversation, and while our fellow- ministers in Egypt, and the Thebais,
and Libya, were in love and peace both with one another and with us; on a
sudden the Prefect of Egypt puts forth a public letter, bearing the form of
an edict, and declaring that one Gregory from Cappadocia was coming to be
my successor from the court. This announcement confounded every one, for
such a proceeding was entirely novel, and now heard of for the first time.
The people however assembled still more constantly in the churches[7], for
they very well knew that neither they themselves, nor any Bishop or
Presbyter, nor in short any one had ever complained against me; and they
saw that Arians only were on his side, and were aware also that he was
himself an Arian, and was sent by Eusebius and his fellows to the Arian
party. For you know, brethren, that Eusebius and his fellows have always
been the supporters and associates of the impious heresy of the Arian
madmen[8], by whose means they have ever carded on their designs against
me, and were the authors of my banishment into Gaul.
The people, therefore, were justly indignant and exclaimed against the
proceeding, calling the rest of the magistrates and the whole city to
witness, that this novel and iniquitous attempt was now made against the
Church, not on the ground of any charge brought against me by
ecclesiastical persons, but through the wanton assault of the Arian
heretics. For even if there had been any complaint generally prevailing
against me, it was not an Arian, or one professing Arian doctrines, that
ought to have been chosen to supersede me; but according to the
ecclesiastical Canons, and the direction of Paul, when the people were
'gathered together, and the spirit' of them that ordain, ' with the power
of our Lord Jesus Christ[9]' all things ought to have been enquired into
and transacted canonically, in the presence of those among the laity and
clergy who demanded the change; and not that a person brought from a
distance by Arians, as if making a traffic Of the title of Bishop, should
with the patronage and strong arm of heathen magistrates, thrust himself
upon those who neither asked for nor desired his presence, nor indeed knew
anything of what had been done. Such proceedings tend to the dissolution of
all the ecclesiastical Canons, and compel the heathen to blaspheme, and to
suspect that our appointments are not made according to a divine rule, but
as a result of traffic and patronage[1].
# 3. Outrages which took place at the time of Gregory's arrival.
Thus was this notable appointment of Gregory brought about by the
Arians, and such was the beginning of it. And what outrages he committed on
his entry into Alexandria, and of what great evils that event has been the
cause, you may learn both from our letters, and by enquiry of those who are
sojourning among you. While the people were offended at such an unusual
proceeding, and in consequence assembled in the churches, in order to
prevent the impiety of the Arians from mingling itself with the faith of
the Church, Philagrius, who has long been a persecutor of the Church and
her virgins, and is now Prefect[2] of Egypt, an apostate already, and a
fellow-countryman of Gregory, a man too of no respectable character, and
moreover supported by Eusebius and his fellows, and therefore full of zeal
against the Church; this person, by means of promises which he afterwards
fulfilled, succeeded in gaining over the heathen multitude, with the Jews
and disorderly persons, and having excited their passions, sent them in a
body with swords and clubs into the churches to attack the people.
What followed upon this[3] it is by no means easy to describe: indeed
it is not possible to set before you a just representation of the
circumstances, nor even could one recount a small part of them without
tears and lamentations. Have such deeds as these ever been made the
subjects of tragedy among the ancients? or has the like ever happened
before in time of persecution or of war? The church and the holy Baptistery
were set on fire, and straightway groans, shrieks, and lamentations, were
heard through the city; while the citizens in their indignation at these
enormities, cried shame upon the governor, and protested against the
violence used to them. For holy and undefiled virgins[4] were being
stripped naked, and suffering treatment which is not to be named and if
they resisted, they were in danger of their lives. Monks were being
trampled under foot and perishing; some were being hurled headlong; others
were being destroyed with swords and clubs; others were being wounded and
beaten. And oh !what deeds of impiety and iniquity have been committed upon
the Holy Table! They were offering birds and pine cones in sacrifice,
singing the praises of their idols, and blaspheming even in the very
churches our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ, the Son of the living God. They
were burning the books of Holy Scripture which they found in the church;
and the Jews, the murderers of our Lord, and the godless heathen entering
irreverently (O strange boldness !) the holy Baptistery, were stripping
themselves naked, and acting such a disgraceful part, both by word and
deed, as one is ashamed even to relate. Certain impious men also, following
the examples set them in the bitterest persecutions, were seizing upon the
virgins and ascetics by the hands and dragging them along, and as they were
haling them, endeavoured to make them blaspheme and deny the Lord; and when
they refused to do so, were beating them violently and trampling them under
foot.
# 4. Outrages on Good Friday and Easter day, 339.
In addition to all this, after such a notable and illustrious entry
into the city, the Arian Gregory, taking pleasure in these calamities, and
as if desirous to secure to the heathens and Jews, and those who had
wrought these evils upon us, a prize and price of their iniquitous success,
gave up the church to be plundered by them. Upon this license of iniquity
and disorder, their deeds were worse than in time of war, and more cruel
than those of robbers. Some of them were plundering whatever fell in their
way; others dividing among themselves the sums which some had laid up
there[6]; the wine, of which there was a large quantity, they either drank
or emptied out or carried away; they plundered the store of oil, and every
one took as his spoil the doors and chancel rails; the candlesticks they
forthwith laid aside in the wall[7], and lighted the candies of the Church
before their idols: in a word, rapine and death pervaded the Church. And
the impious Arians, so far from feeling shame that such things should be
done, added yet further outrages and cruelty. Presbyters and laymen had
their flesh torn, virgins were stript of their veils[7a], and led away to
the tribunal of the governor, and then cast into prison; others had their
goods confiscated, and were scourged; the bread of the ministers and
virgins was intercepted. And these things were done even during the holy
season of Lent[8], about the time of Easter; a time when the brethren were
keeping fast, while this notable Gregory exhibited the disposition of a
Caiaphas, and, together with Pilate the Governor, furiously raged against
the pious worshippers of Christ. Going into one of the churches on the
Preparation[9], in company with the Governor and the heathen multitude,
when he saw that the people regarded with abhorrence his forcible entry
among them, he caused that most cruel person, the Governor, publicly to
scourge in one hour, four and thirty virgins and married women, and men of
rank, and to cast them into prison. Among them there was one virgin, who,
being fond of study, had the Psalter in her hands, at the time when be
caused her to be publicly scourged: the book was torn in pieces by the
officers, and the virgin herself shut up in prison.
# 5. Retirement of Athanasius, and tyranny of Gregory and Philagrius.
When all this was done, they did not stop even here; but consulted how
they might act the same part in the other church[1], where I was mostly
living during those clays; and they were eager to extend their fury to this
church also, in order that they might hunt out and dispatch me. And this
would have been my fate, had not the grace of Christ assisted me, if it
were only that I might escape to relate these few particulars concerning
their conduct. For seeing that they were exceedingly mad against me, and
being anxious that the church should not be injured, nor the virgins that
were in it suffer, nor additional murders be committed, nor the people
again outraged, I withdrew myself from among them, remembering the words of
our Saviour, 'If they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another[2].'
For I knew, from the evil they had done against the first-named church,
that they would for-hear no outrage against the other also. And there in
fact they reverenced not even the Lord's day[3] of the holy Feast, but in
that church also they imprisoned the persons who belonged to it, at a time
when the Lord delivered all from the bonds of death, whereas Gregory and
his associates, as if fighting against our Saviour, and depending upon the
patronage of the Governor, have turned into mourning this day of liberty to
the servants of Christ. The heathens were rejoicing to do this, for they
abhor that day; and Gregory perhaps did but fulfil the commands of Eusebius
and his fellows in forcing the Christians to mourn under the infliction of
bonds.
With these acts of violence has the Governor seized upon the churches,
and has given them up to Gregory and the Arian madmen. Thus, those persons
who were excommunicated by us for their impiety, now glory in the plunder
of our churches; while the people of God, and the Clergy of the Catholic
Church are compelled either to have communion with the impiety of the Arian
heretics, or else to forbear entering into them. Moreover, by means of the
Governor, Gregory has exercised no small violence towards the captains of
ships and others who pass over sea, torturing and scourging some, putting
others in bonds, and casting them into prison, in order to oblige them not
to resist his iniquities, and to take letters[4] from him. And not
satisfied with all this, that he may glut himself with our blood, he has
caused his savage associate, the Governor, to prefer an indictment against
me, as in the name of the people, before the most religious Emperor
Constantius, which contains odious charges, from which one may expect not
only to be banished, but even ten thousand deaths. The person who drew it
up is an apostate from Christianity, and a shameless worshipper of idols,
and they who subscribed it are heathens, and keepers of idol temples, and
others of them Arians. In short, not to make my letter tedious to you, a
persecution rages here, and such a persecution as was never before raised
against the Church. For in former instances a man at least might pray while
he fled from his persecutors, and be baptized while he lay in concealment.
But now their extreme cruelty has imitated the godless conduct of the
Babylonians. For as they falsely accused Daniel[5], so does the notable
Gregory now accuse before the Governor those who pray in their houses, and
watches every opportunity to insult their ministers, so that through his
violent conduct, many are endangered from missing baptism, and many who are
in sickness and sorrow have no one to visit them, a calamity which they
bitterly lament, accounting it worse than their sickness. For while the
ministers of the Church are under persecution, the people who condemn the
impiety of the Arian heretics choose rather thus to be sick and to run the
risk, than that a hand of the Arians should come upon their heads.
# 6. All the above illegalities were carried or in the interest of
Arianism.
Gregory then is an Arian, and has been sent to the Arian party; for
none demanded him, but they only; and accordingly as a hireling and a
stranger, he makes use of the Governor to inflict these dreadful and cruel
deeds upon the people of the Catholic Churches, as not being his own. For
since Pistus, whom Eusebius and his fellows formerly appointed over the
Arians, was justly anathematized[6] and excommunicated for his impiety by
you the Bishops of the Catholic Church, as you all know, on our writing to
you concerning him, they have now, therefore, in like manner sent this
Gregory to them; and lest they should a second time be put to shame, by our
again writing against them, they have employed extraneous force against me,
in order that, having obtained possession of the Churches, they may seem to
have escaped all suspicion of being Arians. But in this too they have been
mistaken, for none of the people of the Church are with them, except the
heretics only, and those who have been excommunicated on divers charges,
and such as have been compelled by the Governor to dissemble. This then is
the drama of Eusebius and his fellows, which they have long been rehearsing
and composing; and now have succeeded in performing through the false
charges which they have made against me before the Emperors[7].
Notwithstanding, they are not yet content to be quiet, but even now seek to
kill me; and they make themselves so formidable to our friends, that they
are all driven into banishment, and expect death at their hands. But you
must not for this stand in awe of their iniquity, but on the contrary
avenge: and shew your indignation at this their unprecedented conduct
against us. For if when one member suffers all the members suffer with it,
and, according to the blessed Apostle, we ought to weep with them that
weep[8], let every one, now that so great a Church as this is suffering,
avenge its wrongs, as though he were himself a sufferer. For we have a
common Saviour, who is blasphemed by them, and Canons belonging to us all,
which they are transgressing. If while any of you bad been sitting in your
Church, and while the people were assembled with you, without any blame,
some one had suddenly come under plea of an edict as successor of one of
you, and had acted the same part towards you, would you not have been
indignant? would I you not have demanded to be righted? If so, then it is
right that you should be indignant now, lest if these things be passed over
unnoticed, the same mischief shall by degrees extend itself to every
Church, and so our schools of religion be turned into a market-house and an
exchange.
# 7. Appeal to the bishops of the whole Church to unite against Gregory.
You are acquainted with the history of the Arian madmen, beloved, for
you have often, both individually and in a body, condemned their impiety;
and you know also that Eusebius and his fellows, as I said before, are
engaged in the same heresy; for the sake of which they have long been
carrying on a conspiracy against me. And I have represented to you, what
has now been done, both for them and by them, with greater cruelty than is
usual even in time of war, in order that after the example set before you
in the history which I related at the beginning, you may entertain a
zealous hatred of their wickedness, and reject those who have committed
such enormities against the Church. If the brethren at Rome[9] [last year],
before these things had happened, and on account of their former misdeeds,
wrote letters to call a Council, that these evils might be set right
(fearing which, Eusebius and his fellows took care previously to throw the
Church into confusion, and desired to destroy me, in order that they might
thenceforth be able to act as they pleased without fear, and might have no
one to call them to account), how much more ought you now to be indignant
at these outrages, and to condemn them, seeing they have added this to
their former misconduct.
I beseech you, overlook not such proceedings, nor suffer the famous
Church of the Alexandrians to be trodden down by heretics. In consequence
of these things the people and their ministers are separated from one
another, as one might expect, silenced by the violence of the Prefect, yet
abhorring the impiety of the Arian madmen. If therefore Gregory shall write
unto you, or any other in his behalf, receive not his letters, brethren,
but tear them in pieces and put the bearers of them to shame, as the
ministers of impiety and wickedness. And even if he presume to write to you
after a friendly fashion, nevertheless receive them not. Those who bring
his letters convey them only from fear of the Governor, and on account of
his frequent acts of violence. And since it is probable that Eusebius and
his fellows will write to you concerning him, I was anxious to admonish you
beforehand, so that you may herein imitate God, Who is no respecter of
persons, and may drive out from before you those that come from them;
because for the sake of the Arian madmen they caused persecutions, rape of
virgins, murders, plunder of the Church's property, burnings, and
blasphemies in the Churches, to be committed by the heathens and Jews at
such a season. The impious and mad Gregory cannot deny that he is an Arian,
being proved to be so by the person who writes his letters. This is his
secretary Ammon, who was cast out of the Church long ago by my predecessor
the blessed Alexander for many misdeeds and for impiety.
For all these reasons, therefore, vouchsafe to send me a reply, and
condemn these impious men; so that even now the ministers and people of
this place, seeing your orthodoxy and hatred of wickedness, may rejoice in
your concord in the Christian faith, and that those who have been guilty of
these lawless deeds against the Church may be reformed by your letters, and
brought at last, though late, to repentance. Salute the brotherhood that is
among you. All the brethren that are with me salute you. Fare ye well, and
remember me, and the Lord preserve you continually, most truly beloved
lords.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/IV, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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